Flashbulb privacy policy

Effective November 3, 2026. Operator: Lyravant LLC. Contact: support@lyravant.com.

Flashbulb (called Flashcards before version 1.0) keeps your decks, photos and study history on your iPhone or iPad (decks, history and lecture notes also sync through your own iCloud, if it's on). No account, no ads, no tracking. Some features send text to our server: the AI card writer, lecture notes, answer checking, Explain and practice exams (to write or check them, not stored; for photographed pages, shrunk photos go along so symbols and accents come out right), sharing, classes and challenges (stored until you delete them), and Flashbulb Plus purchases (Apple's purchase record, kept to provide Plus). Anonymous usage counts can be switched off in Settings.

What stays on your iPhone or iPad

• Your decks, cards, review history, exam dates, settings and reminder time.
• Photos, PDFs and recordings you scan, import or make. Text is read from photos on your iPhone; lecture recordings are transcribed on your iPhone. Lecture audio never leaves it. Spoken answers are recognized on the iPhone where it supports that, otherwise by Apple (see "Answers checked by meaning"). Images stay on it too, except shrunk photos of photographed pages sent to the AI card writer (below).
• Lecture recordings stay on the iPhone they were made on (they're never synced or sent).
• With Settings › Sync with iCloud on (the default when you're signed in to iCloud), your decks, cards, review history, streak, diagram images, lecture notes and transcripts are kept in your own iCloud (Apple's private CloudKit database for your Apple Account), so your other devices have the same cards and notes. Lyravant can't see them. If you sign in with another Apple Account, the library from before stays on the iPhone as an earlier copy (Settings › Restore) and isn't copied into the other account's iCloud.
• Widgets, Siri and Spotlight use counts and deck names on your iPhone; nothing is sent.

The AI card writer and lecture notes

• When you make cards (or study notes from a transcript or from pages) with the AI writer on, the text you checked is sent over an encrypted connection to Lyravant's server (run on Supabase), which passes it to Anthropic's API, whose Claude model writes and checks the result. Audio is never sent.
• When you make cards from photographed pages with the AI writer on, up to four photos of those pages, shrunk to 1,500 pixels on the long side, go with the text, so the writer reads symbols, numbers, accents and diagrams from the page itself. The app says so before you make the cards. Like the text, Lyravant doesn't store the photos. Photos are never sent for lecture notes, typed text or PDFs with a text layer.
• Lyravant doesn't store the text, photos, cards or notes. Anthropic processes them to answer the request and doesn't use them to train its models; under its commercial terms it may keep API data for a limited period for safety and abuse monitoring before deleting it.
• To count your monthly AI pages, the app makes a random ID of its own (not a hardware or advertising identifier). Our server keeps that ID with the number of pages, the size of each request (in tokens) and its cost, by month.
• To check that requests come from the real app on a real iPhone, the app uses Apple's App Attest. Our server keeps the public key Apple certifies for this install and a request counter. It identifies the app install, not you.

Turn the AI writer off in Settings and nothing is sent; cards then come from the patterns in your notes, made on your iPhone.

Practice exams

When you start a practice exam for a course, the course's name and its material (card text, typed and imported notes, and lecture notes, cut to fit) are sent the same way (our server, then Anthropic) to write the questions. Short answers you type are sent with the question and its source line to be graded by meaning, like typed card answers. Nothing is stored on our server except the AI page count. Your scores, the last score per course and any question you report stay on your device; "Report this question" can also open your own mail app addressed to support@lyravant.com.

Answers checked by meaning

When you type or say an answer that doesn't exactly match the card and the AI writer is on, the card's question and answer, the line of your notes it came from, and your answer are sent the same way (our server, then Anthropic) to check whether your answer means the same. Nothing is stored except a count of checks for your monthly allowance. "Explain this" works the same way: it sends the card and a few lines of your notes around it, and nothing is stored. It's offered on decks made from typed or pasted text, imports and lecture notes, not on cards made from photos.

Saying an answer uses Apple's speech recognition: on iPhones that support it, on the iPhone; on others, Apple processes the audio under Apple's privacy policy. Lyravant never receives audio. The microphone is used only while you record a lecture or answer out loud.

Sharing, classes and challenges

These are optional and only send what you choose to share. They use a separate random ID, not the AI writer's.

• Shared decks. When you share a deck, its title and the text of its cards (not images, not your study history) are stored on our server and shown to anyone with the link, in the app and as a web preview at lyravant.com/cards/d/…. Links are deleted after 30 days unless the deck is opened by other people on at least two different networks; then they stay a year after the last open. Titles are checked against a list of offensive words, and on the web preview links, email addresses and phone numbers are hidden. You can stop sharing at any time.
• Classes. The class name, the name you pick to show classmates, the class deck, and the number of cards you review each week (your weekly board points). Classmates see your chosen name and points.
• Challenges. The questions from your deck, your score and the name you pick; people with the link see them. Challenges end after 30 days.
• Reports. If you report a deck, challenge or name, we keep the report (reason and any note you write) to review it, normally within 24 hours. Reported content is kept, without its owner's ID, until it's reviewed, even if it's deleted or its owner deletes their data.
• Don't put personal information in deck titles, cards or names you share.

Anonymous usage stats

With Settings › Share anonymous usage stats on (the default), the app sends counts of what happened (cards made and by which writer, a study session finished, an import, a problem reported) to our analytics provider, PostHog, under a random ID the app makes. Purchase events say which plan (monthly, yearly or lifetime) was started, bought or failed, without any transaction number. Each event also carries the device model, iOS version, app version and general settings such as language that PostHog's library adds. Never your notes, cards, deck names, name or email. Like any web request, PostHog receives the IP address the request comes from; the app tells it not to look up a location. Turn the switch off and nothing is sent.

Flashbulb Plus

Flashbulb Plus (part of Lyravant Plus) is bought through the App Store; Apple handles the payment and Lyravant never sees your name, email or card. One Plus works in every Lyravant app. To make that work:

• The Lyravant apps on your devices share one random Lyravant ID, kept in your iCloud Keychain (not a hardware or advertising identifier). It goes with every Plus purchase (Apple's "app account token"), so the purchase belongs to you rather than to one app.
• The app sends Apple's signed record of your purchase to our server. We keep, per purchase: Apple's transaction number, the product, the purchase environment (App Store or test), when it renews or ends, a refund or Family Sharing if there is one, and the Lyravant ID. Apple also tells our server directly about renewals, refunds and cancellations.
• We keep which app installs use each purchase (their random IDs from "The AI card writer" above) so Plus can't be shared beyond your own devices: up to 10 installs seen in the last 60 days.
• Because Apple's transaction number can be matched to your Apple purchase, we treat this as linked to you. It's used only to provide Plus, never for tracking or advertising.
• A purchase shared through Family Sharing gives Plus to the family member's own apps, but their apps never take the organizer's Lyravant ID.

The random IDs the app uses

The app uses separate random IDs, none of them a hardware or advertising identifier, and none tied to your name or email: one for the AI writer's monthly allowance and App Attest, one for sharing, classes and challenges, and PostHog's ID for usage counts. With Plus, there's also the Lyravant ID shared by the Lyravant apps (above), which our server keeps with your purchases.

Reporting a problem with a card

"Report a problem with this card" opens your own mail app with the card filled in, addressed to support@lyravant.com. We see only what you send.

Abuse and safety

To limit abuse, our server counts requests per random ID and per IP address and keeps the IP address only as a salted hash, for two days. Two exceptions, to stop abuse of shared decks: the hash on an open report is kept until the report is resolved, and the hash on an opened share link for up to 30 days. Our hosting providers may keep short request logs, including IP addresses, for a few days for security. Reported content is reviewed by a person, normally within 24 hours; content that breaks the rules is removed, and names that break them are blocked.

What we don't collect

No accounts, no advertising or tracking code. We don't collect your name, email, contacts, location, hardware identifiers or advertising identifier, and we don't sell or share data for advertising.

How long we keep it

• AI page counts: while you use the app, deleted after 13 months without use.
• Plus purchases: until 13 months after the purchase stops giving Plus (it ended, or was refunded); a lifetime purchase until 13 months after any of your apps last used it. Which installs use it: until 13 months after an install was last seen.
• Shared decks: until you stop sharing or delete your data, or 30 days unless people on two different networks open the link (then a year after the last open).
• Class membership and weekly points: until you leave the class or delete your data; weekly points older than 8 weeks are deleted.
• Challenges: 30 days. Reports: up to 13 months after they're resolved.

Your choices

Settings › Delete my data from our servers removes, at once, your shared decks, classes, points, challenges, results and reports, your AI page counts, and the link between your Lyravant ID and your purchases, with every app install that used it (content someone has reported is kept without your ID until it's reviewed). Apple's record of the purchase itself stays with Apple; your Plus keeps working in the app you bought it in. Deleting the app removes everything on your iPhone. You can also email support@lyravant.com.

Children

Flashbulb is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top and describe material changes in the app's release notes.